The traditional New Year blog post

2011 promises to be a big year for our family. The light at the end of the residency tunnel is starting to get bright, and that means we have some big decisions to make. We will be looking for the perfect spot to settle down. That's an exciting prospect, but also kind of scary. With residency and medical school, it was definitely temporary, so it seemed like an adventure to try living somewhere new. This time it will hopefully be long-term, so the pressure is on.

So, our big resolutions this year are:

• Find the best possible job in the best possible location
• Get the house 100% ready to sell

Other things to look forward to this year:

• Sam and Viv both in preschool this Fall
• Grace finishing kindergarten, oh my!
• Viv going to speech therapy
• Sam getting potty trained
• Getting some house projects finally crossed off the list (new carpet, pleeeeease!)
• I might have to find someone to barter with to make those darn valances

Hurray for a new year!

Gotta Love Shutterfly

I have always been a fan of Shutterfly. I've loved their photo books, especially. When Grace was about 3, I made her a super cute "Who Loves Grace?" book with pictures of her with a different relative on each page. She still loves it, and I just found out she takes it to school every day to look at when she's lonely on the school bus! How sweet is that? That inspired me to make similar books for Sam and Viv this Christmas.

This year Shutterfly is offering a great deal on Christmas cards for bloggers (50 free cards if you blog about it!). They have so many gorgeous cards to choose from (more here)! And it is super easy to try out how the card will look with your picture. I may have spent way too long one evening trying different cards with different pictures. Ooops, and I just sprent another good 30 minutes.

Here's a card I really like, but it just didn't work with our pictures.

I think this one is also beautiful. Maybe next year :)

The card I actually pick will be a surprise, though! Wouldn't want to send it out and have everyone think, "eh, already saw that."

Shutterfly also has fun calendars, and someday I am going to go ahead and spring for some fabulous photos on canvas.

If you'd like 50 free cards yourself, go to http://bit.ly/sfly2010. But hurry, your blog post has to be submitted by Dec. 15, and I've already procrastinated about as long as possible :)

More of what I Heart

We are having a fun and eventful Fall! One quick (enormous!) picture, I will try to do better at

keeping up. How sweet are these two? And how fantastic is this tree in the yard?



We just saw the musical "In the Heights" in New York, and I am completely hooked on the music. If you are planning a trip out there, you should see this.

Catch up on our Summer

Before summer is too far gone, a quick quick catch up. We kept busy swimming, going to parks, picking berries, and playing with friends. Our point and shoot broke so, most of the pictures I took were in the backyard.

More firsts!

Vivian is pretty darn happy about her first day of preschool!

All ready to go with her brand new school bag. She had a fun day, and she got to paint a balloon.

Grace at 12 months, with one tooth.

Grace at age 5, without one tooth.

It fell out tonight while she was brushing her teeth, and then was accidentally washed down the drain when she spit it out with her toothpaste. We're not sure how the tooth fairy is going to work that one out :)

We're so proud of both our girls!

Kindergarten update

Grace has 2 whole days of kindergarten under her belt, and so far she seems to be doing great! The first day the bus was running super late, so she didn't get home until almost 5:00, which was SUCH a long day for her, but she came bounding off the bus so excited about her day! They talked about fish, read about fish, went and saw the fish in the principle's office. I was nervous about the transition to all-day kindergarten, I had heard that kids come home really tired for the first couple of weeks. Maybe we're still in the honeymoon phase, but Grace has come home completely energized. She gets home and is excited to play with Viv and Sam, I think they miss each other all day. Sam talks about the bus stop all day long and Viv keeps asking when Grace is getting back. I miss her, too! But I am looking forward to her having a great school year.

The beginning of the rest of our lives

Grace is at kindergarten today. What a weird feeling. She was so excited, she was cheering and pumping her fists this morning. She raced to the bus stop on her scooter and pushed past the other kid at the stop to get on the bus first. The bus was so full and so noisy, and I couldn't see her through the window. It all happened so fast, and then she was off to kindergarten! I was so tempted to get in the car and follow the bus, make sure she got to her classroom, make sure everything was okay. It is scary sending her off into the world without me, even though I know she will do great. I think we have taught her what she needs to know, and she is a good kid who wants to do the right thing. Grace got the teacher we wanted, and I am sure it will be a really great year!